Calling Hector [Starmada vs. SWF]

In the beginning of December the 'virtual' German Infinity-community started to organize itself a bit better in terms of tournaments, leading to a steady supply of competitive games this winter. To prepare for the next tournament in TTS, Commoner1 gave me a game of Mindwipe. For me, it was the first really aggressive game with Starmada, while he gave SWF a try.

As you may have noticed, I am not that used to an aggressive playstile, which is favoured in N4 a lot, especially with Starmada.

 Rauhnächte Mindwipe V2
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GROUP 1  10  
 ANDROMEDA (Infiltration [+6]) Submachine Gun, Zapper, Flash Pulse, D-Charges / Breaker Pistol, DA CC Weapon. (0 | 33)
 HECTOR (Lieutenant [+1 Order]) Spitfire, Nanopulser, Grenades ( | TinBot: Firewall [-3]) / Heavy Pistol, EXP CC Weapon. (0.5 | 67)
 BLUECOAT Adhesive Launcher(+1B), Heavy Riotstopper / Pistol, Shock CC Weapon, PARA CC Weapon(-6). (0 | 13)
 BLUECOAT Adhesive Launcher(+1B), Heavy Riotstopper / Pistol, Shock CC Weapon, PARA CC Weapon(-6). (0 | 13)
 KAPPA Missile Launcher / Pistol, CC Weapon. (1.5 | 17)
 KAPPA Combi Rifle / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 12)
 KAPPA (Paramedic) Combi Rifle ( | MediKit) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 14)
 CRUSHER (Forward Deployment [+8"]) Submachine Gun, Nanopulser, D-Charges / Pistol, E/M CC Weapon. (0 | 29)
 FUZZBOT (Minesweeper, Repeater)  ( ) / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 8)
 KYTTÄ Flash Pulse / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 7)

GROUP 25  / 2
 VARANGIAN Submachine Gun, Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Heavy Pistol, AP CC Weapon. (0 | 12)
 VARANGIAN Submachine Gun, Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Heavy Pistol, AP CC Weapon. (0 | 12)
 CHO (Chain of Command) Combi Rifle, Nanopulser / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 20)
 FUZZBOT (Minesweeper, Repeater)  ( ) / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 8)
 CRUSHER (Forward Deployment [+8"]) Submachine Gun, Light Rocket Launcher, Nanopulser, D-Charges / Pistol, E/M CC Weapon. (1 | 35)

 3 SWC | 300 Points

[url=https://infinitytheuniverse.com/army/list/g+oIc3Rhcm1hZGEYIFJhdWhuw6RjaHRlIE1pbmR3aXBlIFYygSwCAQoAgxQBBQAAgvIBBAAAhfkBAwAAhfkBAwAAhacBBAAAhacBAQAAhacBBwAAhegBAgAAhb0BAQAAhbsBAQACBQCFtQEEAACFtQEEAACF7QEBAACFvQEBAACF6AEDAA==]Open in Infinity Army


The sectorial has not much to offer when it comes to defense, so a Kappa ML-core is mandatory somehow and two Crushers for the better feeling also. The aggressive element here is Hector as a single rambo-piece, supported by Andromeda to take out annoying ARO-pieces. Varangians support this quite good, so two are a must, especially for their low costs. One Crusher should be able to activate one console in the early game, so that Hector, Andromeda or a Crusher can break through and start their work on the servers. I see good CC-attacks more valuable here as the erase-programm, so I skipped the hacking part in my list. The Bluecoats should protect my servers as good as possible. But in the best case, Hector left nothing to attack them.

 
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GROUP 1  10  
 FUSILIER Combi Rifle / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 10)
 FUSILIER (Lieutenant) Combi Rifle / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 10)
 FUSILIER (Paramedic) Combi Rifle ( | MediKit) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 12)
 FUSILIER Combi Rifle / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 10)
 KARHU Feuerbach(+1B), AP Mines / Pistol, CC Weapon. (1.5 | 35)
 FUSILIER Combi Rifle / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 10)
 KNIGHT HOSPITALLER (Doctor) MULTI Rifle ( | MediKit) / Pistol, DA CC Weapon. (0 | 35)
 KNIGHT HOSPITALLER Heavy Machine Gun / Pistol, DA CC Weapon. (1.5 | 37)
 KARHU Feuerbach(+1B), AP Mines / Pistol, CC Weapon. (1.5 | 35)
 NØKK (Hacker, Hacking Device) Combi Rifle, Light Shotgun ( ) / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 30)

GROUP 25  
 FUGAZI DRONBOT Flash Pulse / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 7)
 FUGAZI DRONBOT Flash Pulse / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 7)
 NØKK (Forward Observer) Boarding Shotgun, Panzerfaust, Flash Pulse / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 25)
 FUGAZI DRONBOT Flash Pulse / PARA CC Weapon(-3). (0 | 7)
 NØKK (Minelayer) Combi Rifle, Light Shotgun, Shock Mines / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 27)

 5.5 SWC | 297 Points

[url=https://infinitytheuniverse.com/army/list/agl3aW50ZXJmb3IBIIEsAgEKAAEBAQAAAQEKAAABAQkAAAEBAQAAhc0BAwAAAQEBAAAGAQcAAAYBAwAAhc0BAwAAhcwBAgACBQATAQEAABMBAQAAhcwBBQAAEwEBAACFzAEEAA==]Open in Infinity Army

The SWF-list consisted of a Fusilier-core around the Feuerbach-Karhu as a defensive stand and to push forward, two Hospitaller Knights got an other Feuerbach-Karhu to wreck whatever there is in the midfield. Fugazis give some orders and a soft defense, while three Nokken can push the buttons and defend the midfield. The Hospitallers with their DA-weapons were the only ones to get rid of the servers.

The map appears to be quite open but thanks to tons of scatter terrain, the ground level is more or less completely obstructed. The left has a quite open corridor and there are two longer firelanes on the right side, while the bus on the middle left blocks a lot of things out. There is no deployment on the solarpanel-roofs and the central building does not block much on the first storage, so everything up there may be seen a lot.

I lose the Lt-roll and get the second turn, deploying in the south.

The Fusilier-core deploys around the central building in the north with the Karhu out to ARO on the roof. The other building more on the right sees one Fugazi, the next is down on the street there. One Nokken starts behind the wall. The left corridor is taken by the two Hospitallers, thir Karhu and a Fugazi, while the other Nokken is ready to push the button of the left console.

My core-team is deployed on the ground on the mid right with the ML overwatching the right corridors. One Crusher sees the far right edge behind the adds, the other one starts near the bus. One Varangian on each side. Cho mimes Hector and starts behind the left building, where both Fuzzbots lie on. The Kytta overwatches the Crushers back on the left.

A Nokken minelayer is deployed behind the wall. Andromeda does not infiltrate and stays on my left side to support against the Hospitallers. Hector takes the right side.

SWF 1: The Nokken on the left activates the console without problems and discovers the AI on the central server. Now the knights start. The Karhu takes down the Crusher, Kytta and finally Andromeda. This takes enough orders so that the link needs to reposition in front of the left building.

Starmada 1: While the left Varangian trades himself against the Karhu on the left, the right one sets up some smoke for the right Crusher. Hector advances, shooting down the Nokken hacker and the two Hospitaller Knights. He manages to kill the doc and the hacker completely, so that only the HMG could be revived by the paramedic and damage the servers. On the right, the Varangian now trades himself for the Nokken FO and a Fugazi.

SWF 2: The core-team advances unseen, since Hector has a bad position. The Hospitaller HMG is treated in PanO-manner and dies, but the Karhu has better luck and gets back on his feet. After this, he lets his wrath rain over Cho and a Bluecoat.

Starmada 2: One Fuzzbot is taken to group one. The right Crusher activates the console to find the AI in the left server. He advances further, killing a Fugazi and a spare Fusilier from which I hoped to be the Lt (it wasn't).

SWF 3: The Karhu continues his killing spree with two Kappas and Hector, while the last Nokken deploys a mine on the designated server.

Starmada 3: In LoL, I won't reach the right server with my Crusher, so I simply wreck the one in front of him and call it a day.

With this, I win 6 to 4.

Before I will discuss the Starmada-part, there are a few words to SWF: I own them myself and was quite curious to play them, but the list-building in the actual N4 circumstances still seems quite rough. Commoner1 did his best to squeeze in some of the best units to deploy a solid list for the mission. But in the end, Nokkens were too prone to enemy fire and then you end up short with tricks. The best one of course is the Karhu with double Feuerbach, which is a perverted killer, if he won't recieve a wound somewhere. To pair it with at least one knight seems solid, since you have something by hand to clear mines. But in the end, we agreed that SWF is designed a bit boneheaded and adds not much to PanO.

Starmada on the other hand surprised me a bit. Especially the more aggressive part, even if Commoner1 guided me a bit through this, brought back some fun to the game. I totally forgot about how nice it is if you shoot multiple things in one turn. With DBS, I ended up with turns full of movement and did most of my shooting reactively, I think. This was completely different. With Hector you have a solid one man army, capable of shooting most things and tanking at least two hits with ease. The Feuerbachs here were a bit dangerous, but in everyday situations, he don't have to worry a lot about AROs. Wrecking all the mission-potential with him in turn one was the crucial action. But also the Crusher performed well here. Only armed with a SMG, he managed to break into the DZ and thanks to his great gear, the points for one server could be scored. But there is some more training needed with Andromeda and reactively used Crushers, as the falling left flank showed.

N4 Escalation League Part 2

Even with a lockdown-light at the moment in Germany, a lot of work and several games in TTS increase the backlog and deny the time to write down all the battlereports. So the second part of the report about our Escalation League took a bit longer than expected.

 

Round 2: Hunting Party

While the first round for me turned out quite nice, I hoped to continue this in round two. The choice of mission boosted this, since I am the only one with proper experience of these nieche-missions in our local group. Also my opponent, Bakunin, lost his first round horribly, so what could go wrong?

At the time I was preparing these lists, I thought that I could build a Varangian-haris, what is not the case. So I wanted to slinghot Shona into CC with this link and gluing things down. The Lawkeeper was the major beatstick, utilizing his speed to remove obstacles from the perfect position. In case something goes wrong, there is a Beta spitfire and a full linked Psi COp MMR as last defense. Minimizing on specialists here should reduce the opportunities for my opponent to score some points.

The haris of Reverends is a general appearance in his Bakunin-lists. For Hunting Party, their high PH is a real benefit. I am not sure about the composition there, maybe Kusanagi was also in that list to add some firepower. Besides that, everything else is gathered in a core-link build around a Riot spitfire as major beatstick. A Morlock and a Zero KHD should cause some trouble besides that.

The map has some niece elevated spots in the center, topped by a tower in the south deployment zone. I manage to go first and get the south deployment zone.

The haris with Shona takes the right side, since I can simply smoke the edge and advance there. The core-team is scattered on the left around the corner with the Lt high on the tower to be safe. As a back-up, the Beta takes the center.

The Moderator-core is also deployed on the right, the Reverend-haris on the left. A Morlock screens the core-links.

My Badlands Patrol takes the left center and gets a camo marker infront of him on the center line.

Starmada 1: Mr. Mad Cop advances, which triggers the Zero KHD, placing a mine. The Psi COp glues him to prevent further problems and then disables the mine.With the next movement, the Badlands Patrol gets shot by a Moderator. To get a better position, the Psi COp advances a bit, which is used by the Zero to reset. On the left the Varangians advance and enter suppressife fire under smoke.

Bakunin 1: The Riot Grrl utilizes her visor, executing both Varangians and Shona without any problems. A new mine is placed by the Zero, which fails to activate the console.

Starmada 2: A first shot of the Beta is dodged by the Zero, which leaves the LoF. The next four orders only scratch the armour of the killer-Moderator and the Beta needs to retreat. Before entering suppressive fire, he recieves a first wound.

Bakunin 2: First the Zero activates the console, then he drops a mine next to my link. The following shot downs the Psi COp. I am out of options here, so the game ends.

While I loose 7-0, our Newbie scores the second win against Shasvasti, taking a good place to win the whole league, but still leaving everything open for the last round.
Would the Patrol have reached his target and burn down the Reverends, I would have been in a much better place. Loosing him to a Moderator with combi rifle was bad. Having the Zero unglued that fast was bad, too. But when the Beta fails to kill the Moderator several times, things were gone. My smoke-dodge plan with the Varangians failed totally, since I misjudged the new potential of MSV 1. Being able to see through smoke, even with the modifier, limits the potential of smoke-tricks drastically.

Round three: Highly Classified:

Luckily we could use the last possible date before the second lockdown to end the league physically, of course with enough distance and safety-measures. So it went against WinterFor with the aim to score a major victory and hope to win the league with enough objective points.

The anchor of this list is the Beta-haris with two Psi COps, since this team can shoot nearly everything and score several objectives on the way. Saladin should grant me some more flexibility. The list also was created before I knew about the missing haris/core for Varangians. So one needs to go on his own, while the other one guards Shona on her way forward. Parvati rounds everything in terms of classifieds and once two turns are played, the Santiago should be able to wipe out whatever is left.

Due to the time and an advanced time for the game in that evening, I am not really sure about some points of the list here. There was a Fusilier core with Karhu and Orc for classifieds and to do some shooting, a Boygg for more shooting and a MSR Nisse for reactive shooting. To do some other stuff, a Nokken is included, as well as a Pathfinder. There may have been a further heavy weapon, but I don't remember properly.

Our big shopping center cut the right into two pieces, while the left was taken by smaller terrain pieces. There was no deploying on the higher roofs allowed, but the north got slightly better ARO positions, especially into the midfield.

I somehow need to go second, starting in the south.

Two REMs, a Nokken MSV and a heavy gun take the left, while the core, together with the Boyg and the Pathfinder start centered or on the right. The HVT is deployed on the right, behind the bus.

Together with Saladin, my haris takes the right side. Parvati hides in the center and Shona together with two Varangians are deployed on the left. The HVT also is on the left side.

The Nisse MSR is deployed on the high building on the left side and my Crusher guards my HVT in suppressive fire.

WinterFor 1: The Pathfinder crosses the table, scoring identity check on my HVT. On the right, the Boygg climbs up the shopping center and does a wound on my Beta, while everything else dodges out of sight. Some units advance a bitand the Boygg enters suppressive fire.

Starmada 1: My hacker scans the Boygg out of SF for datascan, so that the Beta can gun him down easily. On the left the Crusher finishs the Pathfinder and the MSR, then enters suppressive fire on his own.

WinterFor 2: A Fusilier hacker scores datascan on my Crusher, then the core team advances. The Karhu repairs the Pathfinder, scoring test run.

Starmada 2: The haris team advances, cutting through the whole core-team and scoring extreme prejudice on the way. The Psi COps then score identity check and follow up on the HVT.

WinterFor 3: Someone shoots down my exposed Psi COp hacker and scores extreme prejudice on him, making the game a tie.

Meanwhile the match between Bakunin and Shasvasti also ended in a tie, leading to the result that our newbie won the league with 7 OPs, followed by myself thanks to some more OPs and 4 TPs, while Bakunin took the third place, also with 4 TP and Shasvasti on the last place with 1 TP.

In general the league was a good start into the new edition, since everybody had the chance to include new skills and units slowly and could focus on new interactions in the first games. I did not expect that everyone of us goofs at least one game, mixing up the ranking completely. Only our newbie failed to mess things up. So now the consideration for lacking experience is gone and the big guns are taken in the future. But of course only strong games let you grow. For the future, we need to find some ways to deal with Covid during the winter, but the next project for our small group is on the horizon!

Caving In (WinterFor vs. Bakunin)

While there were many things to do, it took some time to get a new game in. So close before N4 will drop, we planned to play some more irregular stuff. For this, AssaultUnicorn from the CB-forum has created two custom missions for the moment. To help a bit with playtesting here, we chose "Cave in", as it seemed quite funny to deal with Taigha Creatures emerging from everywhere. But before we go into the game, I have to admit, that the concept was a bit more complicated than a normal ITS-mission, so some things were played wrong and not read carefully.

Here is the mission-description:

 

My opponent for this was my local sparring partner. I expected some Aleph-stuff here, but since the mission requires a quite unique set-up, that did not matter that much:

 Cave in
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10  
 VARG (Minelayer) K1 Marksman Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0.5 | 30)
 VARG (Sensor) Combi Rifle, Heavy Flamethrower, WildParrot / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 26)
 ORC (Mountain Terrain, Climbing Plus) MULTI Rifle + 1 TinBot A (Deflector L1) / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 44)
 MAQUINISTA (WinterFor) (CH: Mimetism, Multiterrain) Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 18)
 KNIGHT OF JUSTICE Lieutenant Spitfire / Heavy Pistol, DA CC Weapon. (1.5 | 51)
 LOCUST Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Breaker Combi Rifle, D-Charges / Pistol, Shock CCW, Knife. (0 | 35)
 SIERRA DRONBOT HMG / Electric Pulse. (1 | 25)
 BØYG Mk12 / Heavy Pistol, Shock CC Weapon. (0 | 55)
 FUGAZI DRONBOT Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)
 FUGAZI DRONBOT Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)

 3.5 SWC | 300 Points

Open in Infinity Army

This time, DBS was no option. Since some D-charges are needed here and DBS have no great access to them, I switched to an other faction. I was not sure if I should play WinterFor or O-12 with some proxing, but in the end I went for Svalarheima, since I could field a fully painted list here. The core-team should be the multi-tool to close one hole, then stomping the cave and doing things with the civvies. To get some tools into this link, the Vargs are included. The Locust should rally for some more holes on his own and disable the Wardriver in the cave, so that it won't harrass my HIs on the way. The Boyg appeared as a nice back-up and strong hammer to change every problem into a nail.

 Cave In
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GROUP 1 6  
 MODERATOR Combi Rifle + Pitcher / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0.5 | 10)
 MODERATOR Combi Rifle / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | 9)
 MODERATOR Lieutenant Combi Rifle / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | 9)
 MODERATOR Spitfire / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0.5 | 15)
 MODERATOR Spitfire / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0.5 | 15)
 TASKMASTER Boarding Shotgun, Pulzar, CrazyKoalas / Heavy Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 43)

GROUP 26  / 1  / 1
 ZERO (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 19)
 PROWLER Boarding Shotgun, Grenades, D-Charges / Pistol, CCW. (0 | 31)
 PROWLER Spitfire, D-Charges / Pistol, CCW. (2 | 36)
 KUSANAGI Spitfire / Pistol, Shock CCW. (2 | 43)
 REVEREND CUSTODIER Hacker (Assault Hacking Device UPGRADE: Icebreaker) Combi Rifle + Pitcher / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 32)
 REVEREND HEALER Boarding Shotgun, Nanopulser / Pistol, EXP CCW. (0 | 32)
 MORLOCK Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, DA CCW. (0 | 6)

 6 SWC | 300 Points
Open in Infinity Army

No LI as it was supposed for this, what is a small bummer. That gives a flexibility, I miss in my list. So there were some tools to deny any area to me and to push forward in the same place, like the core-team and the Taskmaster. Three camo-markers should be able to deal with the mission and avoid attacks by some wild Taighas. The haris of Reverends was the tool for the cave here, even with the Healer and her exp-ccw as only opening.

With not much mountain-terrain on my opponents site, we gathered the normal terrain. The two towers in the south were quite tempting for some snipers but the DZ in general had reduced room to deploy a full core-link. The emergence-holes are displayed as consoles here.

Bakunin wins the Lt-roll and chooses to go first. I wanted to deny the sniper-towers, not thinking enough about a good deployment of my link, so I choose the south DZ.

The Moderator-core is deployed in the center with the haris in front of them between the bus and the cave. One camo markers starts on the left, two on the right.

My core-team scatters behind the boxes on the right, quite open. The mine goes a bit advanced to cover the Taigha. The Boyg hides on the left with the Locust next to the emergence hole on the tower. That is reinforced by both Fugazis.

A Taskmaster overwatches the left hole and I place the Sierra on the right with the same purpose.

Bakunin 1: Two Taighas emerge on the holes in front of the Bakunin DZ. The Morlock sets up smoke on the left hole, while the core-team approaches and clears out the right Taigha. A Prowler on that side needs two attempts to seal that hole, while an other Prowler on the left one does the job in one try. The Moderators advance and take out one Fugazi. A pitcher is shot in front of my KoJ. The Custodier tries to hack my KoJ, which resets and due to bad placing, is fried by the Wardriver in return. The Healer picks it up in the second attempt. The Taskmaster bodyblocks the left Taigha.

WinterFor 1: The left over Taigha fails to berserk the Taskmaster and is wrecked in return, while two new ones ermerge near my DZ. The Sierra clears out the right one. Now the Engineer crosses some distance and deploys D-charges on the right hole and the cave-entry. On his way he tries some shots against the Taigha and the pitcher. The pitcher is more sturdy than the Taigha, so it takes one order too much to clear them both. The core is reformed.

Bakunin 2: Kusanagi shoots down the Sierra and the Healer does one wound to the cave-door. By shooting at my KoJ the Moderator spitfire inflicts one wound but dies in return. A new Pitcher is set up there and the left over Moderators as well as the left Prowler enter suppressive fire.

WinterFor 2: Since the holes on my side are not sealed, two new Taighas appear. The left is taken out by my Orc, taking a wound in return. The flamer-Varg leaves the link to clear out the pitcher and the other Taigha, surviving the chain rifle. With his flamethrower he burns out two more Moderators and dies in return. I reform the link and the Locust cybermasks himself after detonating all the D-charges and doing one wound on the cave-entry.

Bakunin 3: The Taskmaster finally opens the cave and shoots the Wardriver. The Healer with her combat-heels has some problems with the mountain-terrain but manages to recover all civvies and guide them deep into the DZ.

WinterFor 3: Things are nearly done here, since I have to kill all the civvies far away to change the game. The Locust is not equipped for longer ranges and the right is denied by Kusanagi, so I choose the Boyg for a last try. He manages to shoot his way through the remaining Moderators, tanking several shots from the Prowler. Nearly in the enemy DZ, he forces the Taskmaster into cover and shoots the first civvie. With my last order I fail to shoot Kusanagi in the back and finally get shot in return by the spitfire Prowler.

With all holes sealed and one civvie killed, I loose 4-8. I wasted too many orders on the Taighas and the pitchers in special, which took me the opportunity to fry the Wardriver and maybe breach into the cave on my own. Together with the limited combat-group, that broke my neck here. Nevertheless the sturdyness of most of my units equaled for a nearly non-existing defensive play and the performance of the Boyg was outstanding. His shooting-abilities paired with hyper-dynamics is really useful to start some unexpeted rambo-runs. Maybe a Nisse-haris would have been a better choice here, backed up by a defensive core, a Locust and maybe a Nokken, since then I would have been able to deal with the Reverends more easily.

Regarding the mission, it was not really clear who owns which Taighas and how they should react. We concluded that everyone controls the Taighas emerging on the opposite side and that they only follow enemy models but ARO on everyone. Besides that it felt a bit imbalanced to close the holes nearly for free, while you need to take great efforts to crack the cave. With 3 STR and ARM 6, the doors are really sturdy. Maybe some reduction of ARM (to 4 maybe) would be great here. Nevertheless it was a nice experience and an very interesting game!